Stop That Charitable Activity Right Now!

From August 26, 2013 ABC News:

A North Carolina church group said they were prevented from handing out food to the homeless after police threatened them with arrest, according to their website.

For the past six years, volunteers from Love Wins Ministries frequented Moore Square in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturdays and Sundays to give out hot coffee and a breakfast sandwich to those in need, according to the church group's website.

But when volunteers went down to their usual weekend spot to dole out the 100 sausage biscuits and the gallons of coffee they had brought to feed the crowds who had gathered Saturday morning, they were also greeted by officers with the Raleigh Police Department, according to a statement on the church group's website.

I understand why cities do this; they get complaints about homeless people from residents and businesses.  Sometimes, the organizations doing this are intentionally provocative, like Food Not Bombs (who are upset that San Francisco city government isn't far enough left).  And of course, Raleigh is a center-left city government in an otherwise somewhat conservative state.  But since no one wants to really deal with the core issue for most of the homeless -- mental illness -- I can see why church groups are doing what Jesus commanded us, to help those in need.